Man pleads to reduced charges in child abuse case

WEST CHESTER – The trial of a Berks County man accused of punching his girlfriend’s 23-month old son in the stomach so hard that the child faced life-threatening injuries ended abruptly Wednesday after the defendant entered a plea to lesser charges.

Francisco Mendoza, 23, of Reading, pleaded guilty before Judge Anne Marie Wheatcraft to misdemeanor charges of simple assault and endangering the welfare of children, accepting responsibility for the injuries that the young child suffered in October 2012, but avoiding the possibility of spending a minimum of five years in state prison if convicted of felony aggravated assault in the case.

Mendoza, whose defense attorney in her opening statement said was the “wrong person” to be on trial for the severe injuries that his girlfriend’s son, known as Jojo, suffered, was sentenced as part of a plea agreement by the two sides to 420 days to 23 months in Chester County Prison, a so-called “time served” plea. Mendoza had been incarcerated since his arrest in January 2013, so he was entitled to immediate parole, which Wheatcraft granted.

“You look like you are in a little bit of shock,” Assistant Public Defender Susanna DeWese said to her client as he signed the paperwork admitting his guilt in the case, but allowing his freedom.

“Yeah, kind of,” Mendoza answered.

DeWese said her client had maintained his innocence, but said he was faced with the choice of risking a long sentence in state prison or taking a guaranteed sentence of about 14 months.

“He was given the opportunity to walk out of the courthouse today with his family,” the defense attorney noted. “This is a sad case.”

The prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Priya De Souza, said Mendoza’s conviction put an end to the question of who was ultimately responsible for the near-tragic injuries suffered by Jojo.

“Today the defendant finally admitted to everyone what he had already told the police years ago - he beat a one year old child,” De Souza said in a statement after Mendoza entered his plea. “He had a duty to care and protect that baby. His choice to assault a child who couldn’t even speak yet shows that he’s nothing but a bully.”

The plea came in the second day of testimony in the trial, and after authorities received communication from a relative of a witness who had testified in the trial on Tuesday that cast doubt on the testimony of Jojo’s mother, Angelena Barron, according to observers who had been briefed on the matter.

The relative told authorities that he had seen reports about the trial in the media on Wednesday and felt compelled to report that he had been at the house outside of which the assault allegedly took place sometime in 2013. There, he said he saw Barrron repeatedly strike her oldest son, known as “R.J.” while disciplining him. He described the blows she delivered as “pummeling” the child.

Barron, in her testimony in front of the jury of seven women and five men, had maintained that she only used her open hand to slap her children on the hand when she wanted to discipline them, and never used a closed fist. The communication from the relative, disclosed to DeWese, would have undercut that characterization and cast doubt on Barron’s contention that she did not cause the injuries to Jojo.

The guilty plea came with the jury out of the courtroom, waiting to hear more testimony in the case that was expected to last through the end of the week. Wheatcraft dismissed them after going through a colloquy with the defendant to ensure that he understood what rights he was giving up by entering the plea and ending the trial.

“I am willing to continue the trial” should he want to see it through, Wheatcraft told Mendoza, a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a blue shirt and navy trousers. “You shouldn’t feel any pressure. This has happened rather quickly. Do you understand what you are pleading guilty to?”

“Yes,” Mendoza said quietly.

Mendoza was arrested on Jan. 16, 2013, less than three months after police and paramedics were called to a house on Ash Street in Coatesville for the report of an unresponsive child.

According to the scenario of the case laid out by De Souza in her opening statement, Jojo, Barron, and Mendoza had traveled to Coatesville from Mendoza’s home in Reading, where the mother and child were staying, on the evening of Oct. 28, 2012. Barron and Mendoza had met only several weeks before on the Internet before they started living together. Barron said she was essentially homeless at the time, sleeping in her car.

While Barron went inside the house to collect some paperwork needed for welfare assistance and to visit her older son, who was staying with her friend there, Mendoza stayed in the car with Jojo. At some point, he ran to the house and said that there was something wrong with the 23-month-old, and that he was vomiting. Barron said when she tried to wake him, he fell limp.

The boy was taken to Paoli Hospital, where doctors performed emergency surgery. He was bleeding internally, and had suffered a lacerated liver and a perforated lower intestine. He was later transferred to Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where he stayed for several weeks while recuperating from his injuries.

Dr. Samanta Shilling, a pediatric expert on child abuse, testified that the injuries had been the result of some blunt force, and could not have come from Jojo falling out of bed or down the stairs, which Barron said had occurred that morning. “He was literally bleeding to death,” she said.

In addition to the time served prison sentence, Mendoza will be on probation for five years, and must complete a parenting class (he is the father of a son with another woman.) He must also have no contact with Jojo.

DeWese, who had elicited from Barron testimony on Tuesday that she had written letters to Mendoza after his arrest while he was in prison, asked De Souza to ask Barron not to write him in the future. “Mr. Mendoza does not wish to have any contact with her,” she said.